Valon, a communication relay station between the city and the orbital station Cubicon, was once located on the roof of a building. Because of the city air pollution and electromagnetic fields generated by other communication towers, it was of the utmost importance to isolate Valon. Then, Valon was relocated in the upper atmosphere, well above the great city. These days, all Valon communication systems are fully automated. So no human intervention is required. Therefore, Valon is an excellent place to organize tournaments. You’re now in...

"My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Published\CookedPC\CustomMaps" directory. If this folder is not currently on your system, you can safely create it. The archive contains:

DM-Valon.iniDM-Valon.ut3DM-Valon_LOC_int.upk

Details:

I wanted to build a map with complex brush work, something like I did with Amyrade but creating another design and using only custom textures. I've encounter few issues in the development caused by the high amount of brushes and their complexity. Many months of hard work as been put into this level. So now, I can say "Enjoy" !!! For the records:

Holy Moly! Now take a look at this awesome looking map! Even by the fact it is mostly low poly map design, it is a good one. I mean, this map got:
+ vivid and lovely lighting
+ detailed textures
+ beautiful skybox
+ futuristic design
+ good structural design
+ and it makes a lot of fun to play this map. I personally can't get enough of this map. Gonna play the crap out of this, because I love good maps and I love Unreal (kinda obvious). Anyway, thank you very much for this awesome map and keep up the good work, buddy! :)

Damn bro, you really showed what editor skills and experience you have in this map. I played a couple of rounds and I'm really impressed with your BSP skills. Also nice use of the PK02 textures :) You amaze me every time over and over.

Texture wise and BSP wise were mega top notch. I felt kind of intimidated by so much small lights at first, but after a while I really learned to appriciate all those small brushes :) Very nice.

Gameplay wise was really awesome. Great mixing of height differentials and those staircases are really cool.

I felt like some powerups could really benefit the switch here and there:

- Where is the shieldbelt? :O With a UDamage, I did not really feel the 50 Vest being placed so central on such a big map. The reward did not put out to all the dangers in this map.

There is a Vest, Thighpads and Helmet, which can give you 100 Armor if you manage to collect all three, but, chances are you are not gonna collect all three of those 9/10 times. The UDamage is definitely the Powerup to get on this map, but I feel it was too OP right next to such a Medium powerup. Shieldbelt would do much better here. But thats just my opinion :)

Damn bro, you really showed what editor skills and experience you have in this map. I played a couple of rounds and I'm really impressed with your BSP skills.

THX little bro

Also nice use of the PK02 textures :) You amaze me every time over and over.

Great. Indeed, his texture set look awesome I'm glad I can surprise you every time hihi

Texture wise and BSP wise were mega top notch.I felt kind of intimidated by so much small lights at first, but after a while I really learned to appriciate all those small brushes :)Very nice.

THX * 2

Gameplay wise was really awesome. Great mixing of height differentials and those staircases are really cool.

I felt like some powerups could really benefit the switch here and there:

- Where is the shieldbelt? :O With a UDamage, I did not really feel the 50 Vest being placed so central on such a big map.The reward did not put out to all the dangers in this map.

There is a Vest, Thighpads and Helmet, which can give you 100 Armor if you manage to collect all three, but, chances are you are not gonna collect all three of those 9/10 times.The UDamage is definitely the Powerup to get on this map, but I feel it was too OP right next to such a Medium powerup.Shieldbelt would do much better here. But thats just my opinion :)

Well, there is a rule about rewardy items and that is not placing them to close to each other. If there is a clear line of sigth beween them it unbalance the map, specially in TDM. I understand why you think the belt would be a better item instead of the vest but it would unbalance the map making only the UDamage area worthy and also would make a high skilled player to much powerful by collecting the best armor + the powerup. I already added the belt in the beginning for testing purpose but it wasn't good, gameplsy wise. Still, a good armor (vest or belt) was planned at the beginning and after many layout changes, the vest was the best choice

Great map, awesome bsp work and a great sky. Layout is good, sound effects and music perfect.

Small stuff you might want to take a look at:
#@ Bio Rifle pickup, there's a lightmap issue @ the floor
#@ Tigh Armor pickup, there are two hiding places along the walls but they are both blocked (blocking volumes) if you want to keep them blocked you should have some kind of indication that players cannot go there
# At first I couldn't tell that the lifts where lifts and not a part of the floor. Personally I prefer Jumppads unless there's an essential liftjump to be made.
#Glass would look cooler with a custom cubemap texture
#Some of the stairs/steps are combined with blocking volumes to make them feel like ramps, I would keep them as stairs/steps.
#Why is the Sun static and not a Lens Flare? Usually Lens Flare usage is fine as long as they're located high up in the sky, that's my experience from using them anyway.

Top notch work as always Steve, I am very impressed with the BSP and texturing!

Great map, awesome bsp work and a great sky. Layout is good, sound effects and music perfect.

Great !!!

Small stuff you might want to take a look at: #@ Bio Rifle pickup, there's a lightmap issue @ the floor

Yep, I know but I couldn't fix it, sadly

#@ Tigh Armor pickup, there are two hiding places along the walls but they are both blocked (blocking volumes) if you want to keep them blocked you should have some kind of indication that players cannot go there

Those doors are simply to add some decoration. Gamepay wise, even if their wouldn't be blocked, it wouldn't add anything to gameplay and it's the kind of spot players won't use anyway imo. Beside there is a BSP issue in that section of the map so I can't really make those little spots accessible.

# At first I couldn't tell that the lifts where lifts and not a part of the floor. Personally I prefer Jumppads unless there's an essential liftjump to be made.

In most case, I too would prefer jumpad if liftjump can't be made. But for this map, I've decided to go with lifts.

#Glass would look cooler with a custom cubemap texture

Agreed. But I like the actual simple look.

#Some of the stairs/steps are combined with blocking volumes to make them feel like ramps, I would keep them as stairs/steps.

At fist, they was no BV for the stairs. They was simple rectangle and it worked fine, no BV was necessary. Therefore it looked to simple formy taste. I decided to make them look better but since the stair geometry is more complex, it cause the player to collide against them, making them useless. I had to add BV to make them work. but I do not like the stair effect when playing in third person so I prefer ramps to be honest.

#Why is the Sun static and not a Lens Flare? Usually Lens Flare usage is fine as long as they're located high up in the sky, that's my experience from using them anyway.

I had think about ading sun flares but I didn't feel it was needed. I love them in various theme but for this map, since the playground is located above the city, full of dense air & strong fog, it wouldn't be logical to see sun flares imo.

Top notch work as always Steve, I am very impressed with the BSP and texturing!

THX very much for the feedback m8 :) I greatly appreciate your suggestions. It's just that I'm done with this map & I feel it's timeto work on somwthing else